


The Concept of a Mystery

by soft_bellatrix



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Bellamione Cult Discord Game, Discord: Bellamione Cult, F/F, Horror-ish, The department of mysteries is an entity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-31
Updated: 2019-03-31
Packaged: 2019-12-30 01:44:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,240
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18305648
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/soft_bellatrix/pseuds/soft_bellatrix
Summary: Hermione and Bellatrix work in the Department of Mysteries. They are assigned to work on a project together and they take a journey through the Department of Mysteries, uncovering secrets they couldn't dream of.





	The Concept of a Mystery

The Department of Mysteries was a place few people ever dreamed of working; it took a hardened disposition to feel at home in a place that would never wholly make sense and an even stronger will to never talk about what exists in the bowels of the Ministry. Some details had inevitably slipped out, but the vital secrets stayed safe and sound with a tight knit crew of Unspeakables.

Luckily, work matters could be discussed among the Unspeakables themselves. Unluckily, Hermione had failed to create any friendships with her colleagues. She found them to be a slimy, untrustworthy group of people who seemed to have nonexistent lives outside of Level 9 of the Ministry...or a select few who could find work nowhere else in the Ministry after the War. Hermione was definitely not part of the latter—she had job offers pouring in from every job in the wizarding world that she could imagine—and she like to believe she wasn’t part of the former. Yet, the longer she worked in the Department, the less time she spent with friends or family or doing anything remotely non-work related. Her drive to learn everything about the wizarding world had overrun her whole life after she realized just how little she knew once she began uncovering mysteries.

Hermione, presently, was pondering one of the most mysterious projects that had wandered across her desk. Sometimes things just showed up around the Department, like every time a new prophecy was made it appeared in the Hall of Prophecies ready to be catalogued. Some things that showed up were more complex and completely unexpected, like the shimmering black shroud that was encased in a protective bubble hovering in the middle of her office. The project file lay on her desk, actually it was more of a single sheet that simply said:

 

**_Project 05292001A_ **

**Discovered:** 6:25am, Entrance Chamber

**Identity:** Unknown

**Task:** Determine what this object is, how it got here and why. Further instructions dependant on initial findings.

**Description:** Black, sheer, somewhat glittery fabric. Appears as if it might be a shroud. Diagnostics show signs of unknown magical properties, possibly dark or ancient.

**Notes:** Recommended to NOT TOUCH until initial findings are complete as status of object is unknown. Partner will be assigned by end of day. Do not complete any research or testing unless with partner.

 

“Hermione, I see you’ve gotten the project file. Good. The Minister wishes to meet with you regarding the project as soon as you’ve read the file,” the rich, no-nonsense voice of her superior, Gwendolyn Walker, spoke from Hermione’s doorway. 

“Considering this took less than a minute to read and I’ve already been in the office for twenty minutes, I’d say I’m already late. So tell me, what’s up with this project? First, I come into the office and discover I’ve been given this project with no brief or warning. Second, I find out that you’re assigning me a partner, which I explicitly said I would not do when I took this job. And now, the Minister wants to talk to me. He never gets involved. What the bloody hell is going on this morning, Gwen?”

“Listen, I don’t know much more than you, I didn’t find the object. Robbards found it, and I wasn’t in yet and you know how much he enjoys subverting my procedures. For some bloody reason, he chose to discuss it with the Minister and Kingsley absolutely demanded you were on the project. Now he wants to see you, so go, make this easier for all of us.”

Hermione made her way to the Minister’s office whilst dreaming of all the ways to make Robbards suffer for this. Hermione doesn’t work with partners and now her one rule of employment was thrown to the wind because of that insipid little man.

“Hermione, good to see you.”

“Minister Shacklebolt,” Hermione said shortly.

“I know you’re irritated, but let me explain. Something is happening within the Department of Mysteries that nobody understands. I’ve gotten weird and honestly concerning reports from almost all personnel down there. I have a hunch that this object relates to it all. I went and saw it and felt the magical signature radiating off of it before it was contained, it’s something I’ve never felt before. I need someone I can trust on this project and that’s you. It’s protocol that you work with a partner on identification cases, sorry but I will not budge on that. It’s a matter of safety. However, I need someone with experience in the Darker Arts on this case, as well.”

“What are you saying, Kingsley? Who are you pairing me with?”

“I hope one day you forgive me for this. The other one I’m assigning to this case is Bellatrix Black.”

“Are you kidding me?! Matter of safety, my arse. I have half a mind to hand in my resignation immediately. Making me work with a partner is already bad enough, but making me work with her...that’s just cruel and unusual punishment and I’ll never forgive you for this.”

“If you must resign, then I’ll wish you well. But this is the most interesting case you’ve gotten in a while. I can see it in your eyes that you won’t walk away from this. Go home for the day and regroup. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

* * *

 

Kingsley was right. Hermione couldn’t give this up now until she found answers. So, she found her in her office early the next morning awaiting Bellatrix to show up. The first two days passed surprisingly dully. Bellatrix chose not to engage in any way with Hermione, except to explicitly discuss their preliminary findings. Which were none. The object didn’t respond to any of the standard diagnostic spells or even some of the more obscure spells Bellatrix knew. It seemed to absorb the magic, neutralizing it at first contact.

On the third day, Bellatrix started suggesting some decidedly non-protocol ideas.

“We need to take it out of the containment shield and try these tests again.”

“Absolutely not, Black, it could be volatile outside of it.”

“It doesn’t seem to be much of anything. For all we’ve discovered thus far, this could be some Muggle’s funeral shroud and we’re treating it as if it’s going to blow us to bits at first chance.”

Hermione stood her ground for a couple more hours, but finally relented to trying other means to research.

“If this goes south, I’m holding you personally responsible...as I do for most things, _Lestrange_." 

“The name is Black and I frankly could not care less for what some Mudblood chit holds me responsible for,” Bellatrix spoke with more venom than Hermione had heard in the two years they had worked in the same department.

Bellatrix cancelled the containment shield and began running the diagnostics again. All magic was neutralized just as before.

“See, it really is just some useless piece of fabric. Nothing to be scared of, Muddy,” Bellatrix cackled.

“It’s not just a piece of fabric. A normal piece of fabric would react in some way to the magic cast at it, at least we’d see some scorch marks. Bellatrix you need to take this seriously. 

“Oh, I am taking this very seriously, so serious that I’m gonna find which grave this came from,” Bellatrix countered as she reached out to touch the material.

“Bellatrix! Stop don’t touch it! 

Bellatrix grabbed it. “AAAH,” a guttural scream emerged from ruby red lips.

“BELLATRIX!” Hermione lunged at the woman grabbing her upper arm, too scared to think of the consequences.

The scream turned into a full blown belly laugh. “Didn’t know you cared so much, Muddy. See it’s nothing to worry about, just some seamstress’ scraps.”

“Merlin, Bellatrix that is not funny in any way. You could’ve been hurt, anything could have happened. Do you not have a shred of self-preservation,” Hermione spoke, never removing her hand, closer to the woman than she’d been since she was pinned beneath her getting carved.

“I have more self-preservation than you can imagine. I survived two wars and Azkaban, pet.”

The two women just looked at one another, drinking in the last couple minutes. Hermione felt a blush creeping up her chest and into her cheeks, embarassed by how she dove to save this woman who she should hate. Does hate.

Hermione was just about to concede that maybe it wasn’t as dangerous as everyone thought it to be, when an unexplainable chill crawled up her spine. The hairs on her arms were standing on end. She looked up at Bellatrix and saw an uneasiness in her eyes right as the floor gave way and the women were flung out into the ether.

* * *

 

The women found themselves suspended in an inky void; there was no source of light, but somehow they could see each other. There were no walls or floor, only nothingness. No noises were heard, nothing tactile in this space, there was nothing but each other. And pressure. The pressure was so intense that it hurt to draw in each breath; it felt like they were in the middle of apparating with no end in sight.

“Bellatrix what happened,” Hermione spoke, but her voice sounded faint and muffled as if spoken from a great distance.

“I don’t know. Where are we?”

“How should I know where we are. You were the one who had to act like a bloody toddler and got us thrown here.”

“Okay. Calm down. We’ll just apparate out of here, take my arm.”

Hermione took her arm and waited, “well, get us out of here.”

“I can’t. My magic isn’t working. You try.”

Hermione tried to focus on apparating, but the only thing it did was increase the pressure around her chest. “No, no, no, no, no. We can’t get out. What are we going to do. 

“Die of dehydration, I imagine. Maybe asphyxiation if this pressure gets any worse,” Bellatrix said, completely disinterested, looking at her nails as she talked.

“Good god, Bellatrix, don’t you care at all?”

“Not particularly.”

The two sat in silence for a while, as much as one could sit while suspended in a state of no gravity. Finally, Hermione couldn’t take it any longer. “We need to move, to try and find a way out. We can’t just accept this fate.”

“Okay.” No fight was put up from Bellatrix, strange. 

The two began to move through the thick and pervasive air, moving in a half walk, half swim. The darkness was everywhere, there was not a single thing around except for them. And the cold, the more they moved, the colder it got. They kept exploring the seemingly unending space for a long time. There was no way to determine how long they had been in this space, with no sun to track the hours and no magic to tell the time.

“Welcome to space!” a loud disembodied voice boomed all around them. Bellatrix and Hermione looked at one another with a glimmer of fear behind chocolate and caramel eyes, respectively.

“For too long, you wizards have tried to control and harness the horrible place you call the Department of Mysteries. I existed before the Ministry. There is no department, it is only me the Mystery. You are in Space. Not outer space as you ignorant humans have decided is the meaning of space within the bowels of your marble halls. No you are in the concept of Space. There is nothing physical here, but you. However, the immaterial can not be detached so easily, so you still have some tools at your disposal. You can be certain that Time is still passing, you still have Thought, and you could still Love if you were so inclined, but be aware that Death still reigns here. As in every other circumstance in life, you have two options: survive or die. As with all others who have wandered into my domain, I would argue you will probably die, nobody has survived yet. Eloise Mintumble got closer than most, but you know of her demise. She didn’t tumble through time, she tumbled into my domain; she found a way out, but not before Death sunk its teeth into her. Enjoy your time here, or don’t. You have one other choice, accept death now or stay and fight. Death now will be easy, painless, a greeting of a long awaited friend. Choosing to fight and failing will lead to a death worse than you can imagine. Chose to fight and win, I will grant you knowledge and power of the Mystery. Will you die nobly or will you die foolishly, Bellatrix Black and Hermione Granger?”

“We’re fighting. We will get out of here. You cannot scare us, I’ve looked death in the eyes and won before, but you won’t even deign to look us in the eyes,” Hermione exclaimed passionately, the fight that hadn’t been present since the War, coming out in full force.

“Hermione, we cannot possibly win,” Bellatrix was staring at her slack-jawed in shock.

“No, perhaps we cannot, but I will not die a coward,” Hermione looked at Bellatrix and for some reason felt like they had a greater chance than the others before them, “I’m fighting and I hope you’ll fight alongside of me.”

“Fine. Let it be known that Bellatrix Black is no coward in the face of fear. We shall fight.”

“Foolish girls, let the fun begin.”

**Author's Note:**

> The prompt was horror. We haven't fully gotten to the horror part, but it shall come.


End file.
